Super Normal: Tiipoi

What is Tiipoi? First thing I learned during our DesignBloggers Tour in London last week: it’s a young and thriving British design brand with Indian roots. Second learning followed immediately while Spandana Gopal, the founder of Tiipoi, told us about the word’s meaning: it actually signifies a sort of small tripod stool that the British colonist interpreted as a tea table (well of course). Since Tiipoi seems to be an obvious link between India and Britain from a design perspective, this seemed an appropriate name for this up-and-coming lifestyle label.

The tripod stool is a typical Indian object for daily life that qualifies as the ‚super normal’. This concept has been picked up by Tiipoiin the sense that they refer to a very Indian design ethos – the celebration of the normal objects that are designed and made to last for a lifetime and beyond. Influenced by this Indian tradition as well as the contemporary vision of Jasper Morrison and his ‚super normal’ concept, Tiipoi has launched a small and fine selection of objects for the daily use.

Their current range of products encompasses kitchen accessories like bowls, containers, jars made of materials typical for India like wood, brass, copper, stainless steel. As a London based label these object also juxtapose the cluttered big city life and reduce their appearance to the very essential in design and aesthetics combined with a longevity that raises its voice against today’s throw-away mentality and consumerism. Our design blogger group was also asked to contribute a ‘super normal’ object from our daily lives which was then exposed on a gallery wall highlighting the simplicity and functionality of design. Can you guess my ‘super normal’ object on this wall?